Winter blues can be a real issue for many people. Even though it’s the time of holidays, gloomy weather disagrees with some people. Here is how yoga can help:
Helps you relax
Winter time can be really stressful – holidays, family, work and so on. It’s hard to find enough time for yourself, to relax and rest a bit. This is where yoga can be helpful.
It reduces your levels of cortisol which is the hormone you release when you get stressed. This means that you’ll be able to stay cool, calm and collected during all the family drama, gift shopping, late nights at work and so on.
Even if these are not an issue for you, winter can be stressful to many people simply because of the cold weather, dark skies and overall gloomy feeling that comes with it. Use yoga when you miss sunshine to help you bring a bit of happiness and summer into your life.
Furthermore, walking through the slushy snow and balancing on the ice can put a strain on your muscles. Relaxing yoga can help relieve your muscles and center you so you can be better at handling slippery roads and more walking on slushy snow.
Even research supports the relaxing effect that yoga can have on people.
Improves your romantic relationship
Winter can be a stressful time for any relationship, but especially a romantic one. Moods worsen as days get shorter and sunny days are few and far between. You have to spend more time with family and deal with each others’ families. You also still have to work – even more so – or have more obligations during winter months. That paired up with having less time outside, on the sun, can be a very overwhelming experience for any relationship.
“This is another area where yoga can be really helpful. If you do yoga on a regular basis, you can learn to manage your feelings and snap less at your partner. It can help you snap less at everyone, in fact, and say things that you might regret,” says Meena Arnold, a lifestyle columnist at Draftbeyond and Writinity.
People who are especially affected by winter can benefit a lot from doing yoga on a regular basis as a way to find your peace and that happy place you can go to in the time of great stress.
Helps you build a better sense of self
With yoga, you can get to know yourself better and build a stronger, more nonjudgmental relationship with your mind and yourself. You can build trust and self-confidence with practicing yoga regularly which gives you more mental power in times of stress.
Because yoga is exercise, it can make the extra energy you would otherwise spend in the summertime go away and prevent a buildup which generally leads to more stress and anxiety. Because you exercise more and eat better, you feel better and start feeling proud of yourself because you put all of that effort into being better.
Once you get more rooted in your sense of self and your center, you can have a healthy eho which gives you courage and enough balance to deal with tough times. You are no longer afraid of family questioning your life choices – you know who you are and that you are still going to be okay.
Helps you recognize your own qualities
Yoga can help you recognize qualities in yourself that you were previously not aware of, helping you become more mindful and focused on your well-being. You should focus on the places in your body that have a lot of tension, stress, tightness, knots and energy buildups. That’s where we hold our physical and emotional strength.
You should work from the outside in and asana is very important here. A backbend position can help you open up your heart and release the stiffness you hold between your shoulder blades. You might even have some emotional relief that you might or might not be aware of. This is all about doing work inside to change and be open to recognize your new strengths and faults.
Helps with family issues
Family is something that we can’t give back, something we are born into and are stuck with for the rest of our lives. You might be stressed about your family gatherings because of all the questions, judgement about your personal choices and tension that might exist between family members. Yoga is there to help you find your way through that and realize that you can’t change your family – all you can do is love them and respect them while standing your ground, being balanced and unapologetically yourself.
This is a pressing issue during winter months, because you will definitely see your family more often and spend more time with them. If you have some family issues, you will inevitably get stressed about it and there is no better way to handle it than doing yoga.
Relieves stress and anxiety
Winter is the time of wonder, family, gifts and being with other people. It can be magical for people who love it and are not intimidated by these things. However, winter can also be a time for great stress and anxiety about so many things – work, family, love, even presents.
To relieve this anxiety and stress, you need to do yoga.
Better stress response
“When you are doing yoga, you develop a great way to deal with your stress. For example, when something stressful happens, you can stay cool and calm enough to come up with a good solution instead of jumping to being anxious and stressed about it,” says Andy Brooks, a health and wellbeing writer at Last Minute Writing and Researchpapersuk.
It warms you up
Finally, we all know how cold the winter can be. Our hands and feet can get perpetually cold during winter months and yoga can help with that. Because yoga is such a great way to exercise, your limbs and fingers can get warmer and stay warmer throughout the day.
For anyone dealing with winter blues, yoga can be salvation. With the relaxing effect it has on people, you can find new ways to remain happy and calm all through the winter season.
